The build-up to the big derby match this week has been intense. The papers are full of it. Fans can't wait.

We're not talking about last Tuesday's Carling Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane (which most Gooners are still trying to forget!), but today's Boca Juniors v River Plate derby in the annual summer pre-season tournament in the seaside town of Mar del Plata (think Brighton or Blackpool).

Even though today's game is a pre-season friendly in the seaside sunshine (it's summer in Argentina) no "super-classico" can take place without a huge, passionate crowd and intense media coverage. The atmosphere in the ground will be amazing.

Argentine football isn't without its problems. It can be cursed with violent hooliganism. It does, however, have an amazing ability to produce an endless supply of worldclass players, despite big clubs here in Europe snapping them up at an ever-younger age.

Fsf members lucky enough to have attended Boca - River games say they've never experienced an atmosphere like it.

Why isn't it like that here anymore? Lots of reasons.

Ticket prices, lack of competitive balance, no choice to sit or stand in safety, over-zealous stewarding and policing, for starters.

Visiting German fans at Wembley for the last England v Germany friendly remarked how flat the atmosphere was compared to previous visits.